Pinckney, Michigan — Today, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality cited Rover Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, for spilling gasoline in an ongoing, days-long discharge of over 100 gallons of water per minute into a Pinckney, Michigan wetland. The spill is located on a construction site of the Rover Pipeline project, a 713-mile natural gas pipeline to ship fracked gas from the Utica and Marcellus Shale plays in West Virginia and Pennsylvania through Ohio and Michigan, connecting to a major distribution hub in Dawn, Ontario. Rover has already faced record fines from the Ohio EPA after spilling over 5 million gallons of drilling fluids laced with diesel fuel into wetlands in Ohio.

Residents with the group Michigan Residents Against the ET Rover Pipeline released the following statements in reaction to the ongoing environmental crisis:

“There is no movement to contain [the spill], no movement to stop it,” said local resident Matthew S. Borke. “There was barely any movement to even study it. No one showed up with a test kit until more than 24 hours [after it was reported] as they continued to pump the fluids into the stream.”

“Our fears are coming to life,” said lifelong Pinckney resident Jen. “It’s actually happening, and nobody’s acting fast enough. We’re just disappointed about how slow the response [has been]. The left hand doesn’t seem to do what the right hand’s doing throughout this project. We hope that MDEQ will come out strong on our behalf to protect our water.”

“To the best of our understanding, it appears that a dewatering system has turned into an active wetlands contamination system,” said Cliff Rowley, a longtime Pinckney resident. “It appears that these wetlands are being actively contaminated to protect Rover’s resources. It’s their system, so we believe they are responsible for the consequences.”

Michigan Residents Against the ET Rover Pipeline is a grassroots effort of Pinckney area residents opposing the construction of Energy Transfer Partners’ Rover Pipeline. More information available at OverWithRover.com